The School of Business and Economics at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) has opened a trading room designed to enhance learning experiences and better prepare students for careers in business, finance and economics.

"We are excited that we can provide a realistic experience by bringing our students world-wide current financial market information," said Dr. Jessica Bailey, dean of the School of Business and Economics. "This room, which incorporates the latest in instructional technology, will allow students to learn experientially about financial markets. Having this facility will let us offer financial seminars for high school and community groups as well."

Located in the R. J. Reynolds Building on campus, the trading room includes a 45-foot New York Stock Exchange ticker tape of the Dow Jones industrial average stocks in the hallway and a market wall inside the room with current information on stocks, bonds, commodities, foreign exchange rates and trading indices from various world financial markets. Data will be provided from the Morningstar Direct financial platform to dual screen monitors at the 26 workstations in the room. Additional details such as displays of local times in eight world-wide financial centers and financial news cable channels are also included.

"The trading room will add a new dimension to our curriculum which will be invaluable to our students and certainly support our efforts to bring in financial services practitioners to expand our educational opportunities," said Nick Daves, director of the Center of Excellence in Financial Services at WSSU. "We will be able to teach investment classes with current market data in the trading room and it will be available to other parts of the university and to the Winston-Salem community. Additionally, the trading room will facilitate research on financial topics by students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as by faculty. "

The trading room also will be home to a Student Investment Fund that will allow students to work with real money to make investment decisions under the supervision of faculty and industry professionals. Investment gains will be used to fund scholarships for the School of Business and Economics.

The Center of Excellence in Financial Services is responsible for the undergraduate personal financial planning curriculum. Students completing the required coursework are eligible to take the nationally-administered examination for qualification as a Certified Financial Planner®. In 2008, WSSU became the first of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities to register its undergraduate finance curriculum with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.